☽ The Path to Nowhere ➳ -- Stri & Hawk & Socks

L didn’t trust Kaladin or Bari (or Ian), but he didn’t think leaving them was the best route. He didn’t know if there was anyone else here. Besides…he thought he’d rather keep a close eye on people, whether he trusted them or not.
He didn’t hear whatever it was that Bari heard. Maybe it was something relevant…or maybe it wasn’t. Either way, it was the only lead they had, so he was perfectly willing to follow it.
“Yes,” he said simply. He didn’t see the need to elaborate. They weren’t splitting up for the present, and that was all.
He hesitated, then followed Bari, trying to keep to the back of the group, behind Kaladin. He didn’t want anyone behind him, nor even someone who probably had selfish reasons for wanting him to stay alive at the moment.
He paused at the edge of the river as they arrived, blinking down at the water. That was…not what he’d expected, though he was pleased by it.
“Water,” he noted, poking his toe into it. Then he bent down to poked his index finger in instead. He put it very carefully to his tongue.
“Fresh,” he announced, pleased.

People? Bari looked at Kell with a lot of hesitation. What did people sound like? Did they sound like Kell and Light? Or did they sound different. Were they people?
There was a highly confused expression on their face for a while. Just looking at Kell before finally returning to Ian.
They seemed seemed to be a long moment where they just listened, focusing on the wind and water. Could they hear further than their two companions? They weren't as sure as they had originally thought.
It took a long moment for them to finally take out the same sticker book. Then they turned to Kell, apparently sparing Light the option of being a walking display board. It was from there that they ripped up a few of the stickers and pointed toward Kell's arm with a free hand. Then they reached out to place one of the stickers on him.
It said, 'Yes.' Or rather, it was a bunch of letters that made out 'y-e-s.' Then Bari pointed off in the direction of a side street, passed several houses. More stickers, 'People over there.'

Kell hesitated for a long moment before eventually offering his arm up to Bari. He had a feeling that the stickers would come off the fabric of his coat easily enough. He also had the feeling that he would be quite put out if it didn’t. He didn’t have much that belonged to him – his name, his coat, the knife at his hip, and whatever was in the various pockets of the coat. He would spend some time going through those as soon as they found a place to rest and reconnoiter. He would also likely peel the stickers off to make sure they came off, and then he would let Bari use his clean sleeve again, if he needed it. But that was… well, whenever they had time to stop for a break. Kell had no idea when that would be. He had no idea if they were doing something time sensitive or not. It was all… a little bit difficult to follow.
“You’re afraid that we’re going to kill you in your sleep, and yet you want to head towards more people?” Kell asked, cocking an eyebrow as he looked at Light. It wasn’t so much that he disagreed as it was that the man’s answer surprised him. He didn’t know what or who to trust, but he had a feeling that a source of water, even freshwater, could easily be contaminated. He didn’t think he would drink any straight unless he’d had the chance to boil it first.
“How many people?” he asked after a moment, more on edge than he cared to admit. “I think… we should see who they are before we draw attention to ourselves. If we talk to them, then we’re stuck with them knowing about us. It might… be better to be subtle. In case they’re the ones behind this.”

L couldn’t decide whether he was actually annoyed, or he just thought he was because he was in a very vulnerable situation with no real way of getting out of it. Everything felt a bit annoying to him at the moment. Kell especially. He had reasons for the things he did…he wondered if maybe he was unaccustomed to being questioned. He also had to wonder whether he was a very nice person. The answer to the last question seemed to be no, but it was too early to tell for sure.
So he just narrowed his eye at Kell before he replied.
“I didn’t say I wanted to,” he pointed out, as patiently as he could. “I said, ‘should we go towards them’. It was a question…I was asking for your opinions. I’m trying to include you two. Something tells me I usually work alone. I can’t imagine why I might have decided that was more efficient.”
He was going to say more, but he realizes then that Bari was moving. Moving…in the direction of the people.
With seemingly no intention of stopping or waiting for a group decision. Which L could understand, but also complicated things a bit.
He pursed his lips for a moment, then started after them, hands in his pockets. He assumed Kell would come, too, since he didn’t seem to want to be alone.
There was something to the idea of staying hidden and spying on them, though. L just hoped that Bari had taken that suggestion to heart.
He stopped as he caught up to Bari, keeping his distance from the door.
“Bari,” he hissed as quietly as he could. “Bari. Don’t knock. We need to talk about what we’re going to do, first.”

Bari seemed very confused about the whole situation. To them, it seemed like a very appropriate thing to do. They were trying to get the attention of people inside, weren't they?
Which they might have done, was it not for the fact that they had no idea what this 'knocking' was that had just been mentioned. Bari stared at the door for a very long while. Then, because they could not see any way to 'knock' (what were they supposed to knock, after all), they instead leaned forward and ...
There was the scream of distressed metal, the cracking and straining of wood ... and the door fell off its hinges. Bari looked at the now open portal to the house beyond and then looked back at L and Kell. They seemed to be grinning. Hard to tell, when even describing them was a struggle, but 'grinning' seemed to cover it.
As for the other questions ... well, they'd find out soon.

Kell tensed, entire body going into fight or flight mode as the door was kicked in. If there truly were people in there, they were going to meet them soon. Kell had to admit that he wasn’t sure he was ready. He was fairly confident that neither Bari nor Light were lying about what was going on, but if they had ended up at the home of the people who had done this to them… he shuddered. A flame burned to life in his hand, and he almost leapt back from it before he realized it was his body moving directly into defending himself. Clearly, he had fought for himself enough times that his body knew what to do in dangerous situations.
Light seemed to have a very similar reaction, though he opted for the flight part of fight or flight. Kell couldn’t blame him, though he couldn’t shake the feeling that splitting up was one of the worst things they could do. He was about to call for Light to come back, but… they were dealing with the fact of other people in different ways. Bari seemed to have a way of telling where people were, and if they needed to find Light later, they would. For now, Kell wouldn’t draw any more attention to him. That just seemed cruel when he clearly wanted to get away without being noticed.

Falling asleep seemed like one the the worst things for Kelsier to do, at the moment. He was going to have to, eventually, and he wasn’t sure he felt very comfortable with anyone he had met so far being around him when he did, but that was a problem to be solved later. For now, he needed to make sure no more harm came to Orsino, at least until the kid could recover from the last attack. He wanted to go check on the others too, especially Sam, but for now…he was needed right here. Orsino needed him more.
So he was very much awake when the silence was shattered by someone breaking in the door.
He sat up suddenly, his hand clenching around his dagger, his eyes scanning for whoever had decided to break in. It was possible whoever it was didn’t know anyone was there, which meant he didn’t call out, but it was also possible that they very much did, and that they were one of the people who had decided to attack coming back to finish what they’d started. He slid to his feet, completely silent, and moved between the entrance and Orsino. If something wanted to pounce, it would have to go through him first.

(Bump due to life, will return, just don't wanna lose.)

Kelsier readied himself for an attack, shifting into a defensive posture. He was blocking the path from the door to Orsino, and there was no other way in, but he had seen how quickly Sam and the others could move and he knew just how strong they were. He could slow one down, maybe, but he didn’t think he could stop them.
His eyes narrowed at the words, and he tensed. It meant they had entered, or almost entered.
It also meant there was more than one.
He couldn’t tell whether he was used to being suspicious or not. If he was naturally pulled one way more than the other, he had lost that along with his memories, it seemed.
He weighed his options. He’d have liked to meet them outside, where Orsino would be safe if anything went wrong. But leaving meant something could just go wrong here while he was gone. He was pretty sure there wasn’t another way in, but he had been wrong too many times today already to trust that, and he wasn’t entirely sure he could defend himself even if he was alone.
He had yet to notice the chair.
“I’m afraid I won’t be much help there,” he called back, straining everything but the calm confidence from his tone. He was a little bit surprised by how well he could do that. “But I will give you one bit of free advice. Stay back.”

Bari was practically bouncing up and down in excitement, trying to keep going and apparently completely misunderstanding what Kelsier was warning about. But also they couldn't go any further ahead with Kell's arm in the way. So they just bounced on their heels a lot and waited, trying to strain their neck to look. And by 'strain their neck' it was clear that they weren't aware of the biology behind how far a human neck should strain, this while it wasn't too far beyond a normal humans, it was enough that it looked visually ... off.
Ian, on the other hand, was a completely oblivious chair and continued to shuffle forward in an inexorbitant blink. Which was likely more disturbing than any of the people coming closer, since the chair just ... moved when you weren't looking. Blink and it was a couple inches further along.

Kell wasn’t sure he liked Kelsier very much. He was just a touch too friendly while still being incredibly menacing and threatening. He also wasn’t entirely certain he liked Bari much. He could tell there was something off about them, but he couldn’t quite voice what it was. He was trying to get along with them because they had appeared at the same time, but… Light had left. Perhaps Light had the right idea. Kell swallowed, eyes narrowing as he forced himself to focus on the moment at hand. He let out a soft sigh, putting one hand carefully in the pocket of his many-sided coat. He still didn’t know why he had appeared with blood on his fingers, but he figured that probably wasn’t the best thing to tell Kelsier. And he had no idea how to explain Ian. The chair kept moving, and all Kell knew was that he was fairly certain that chairs weren’t supposed to be able to move on their own. He was also fairly certain that he couldn’t actually see Ian moving, he was just aware that it had moved.
“That’s ironic,” Kell said after a moment, keeping his arm in place to stop Bari from going forward. “My name is Kell. The… person… I’m travelling with is named Bari. They can’t physically talk. As far as I can tell. We… just met.”

boop

Kell’s eyes widened as he realized that the chair was… moving. Well, he had seen the chair move, but he hadn’t realized what it was doing. It was… knocking. Kell sent a quick prayer to whatever gods there were that the chair couldn’t actually open a door without any arms. He glanced at Bari, just to make sure that they couldn’t get away from him that quickly.
“Ah,” he said after a moment, hoping that Kelsier wouldn’t end up slitting their throats before he could explain the situation. Not that he thought he could easily explain the situation, but he could at least try. “Well… I seem to have forgotten we have a third companion. Who can’t… actually talk, either. It… well, it appears to be a chair.” Perhaps that was normal. It wasn’t as though Kell had any basis for what was normal and what wasn’t, he just… didn’t think a chair that moved fit into his brain as well as some of the other things he had experienced.
“I promise we wish you no harm,” he added, silently willing the chair to stop moving and knocking on the door. “Perhaps… if you could come out here… we could talk. I promise that I…” he glanced down at the knife at his side. He couldn’t exactly say he was unarmed. “Will use no weapons against you,” he decided after a moment, “but I will not hold it against you if you bring a weapon out with which to defend yourself if you have reason to believe we are lying.”

Knock, knock.
Chairs didn't pay attention to requests, thank you.
Though if Kelsier was listening, it did sound pretty accurate to a chair butting up against a door. Very wood-against-wood. (Though the sound still felt a little ... wrong. Ah well.)
Bari glanced at Kell. No idea what was going on. What was the sharp thing at Kell's side that he'd looked at for a second.
The odd figure twisted himself a bit and tried to poke at the knife. Maybe to indicate 'what is this' and maybe to try and take it. There were options. There was a lot of different possibilities, all things considered. And all things considered, Bari was dangerous to not pay attention to at all points, apparently.
Ian bumped against the door again. Bump, bump, bump.
It wasn't sounding particularly like a human doing it either at least.